Scott Frost: UCF didn't give K-State its best shot in 34-20 loss
Scott Frost struck a tone of disappointment but also resolve after UCF’s 34-20 loss at Kansas State, saying the Knights “didn’t give their best shot” in their Big 12 opener.
Here’s everything Frost had to say in his postgame press conference.
Opening statement
“Tough one today. I thought the boys fought through a lot of circumstances this week and were ready to play. But we didn’t start well enough on offense.
“A lot of credit to them. I have a lot of love for Manhattan, Kansas and this school having been here. I know Coach Klieman as a friend and former co-worker. I want to congratulate them. They got a lot better over the bye week. They used the bye week well.
“They gave us their best shot, so congratulations to them.”
On the slow offensive start, but battling back in the second half and nearly making it a one-score game in the 4th quarter before penalties derailed the drive
“Yeah. We just can’t start like that. Watching them on tape, really the way people got after them is they earned first downs and made K-State defend runs and then get another first down and make them defend runs.
“And sooner or later something popped. And that happened for us in the second half. We didn’t earn any first downs at the start of the game.
“Just quarterback eyes in the wrong place here or there. K-State making the right call against what we had on here or there. And we just sputtered in the first half, and we couldn’t get any momentum going.
“In the second half, we started to, and some of the runs that we expected to hit, hit. We made a couple good adjustments for how they were playing our different formations. But going into the game, we expected them to use tempo and try to go fast and run the quarterback, which is what happened.
“And because of that, we wanted to try to control the ball and time possession. And it completely went against our plan to begin with.
“And we left the defense, in their defense, we left our defense out there too long. And we’ve got to keep fighting despite that. But we didn’t put them in a good situation.”
On Tayven Jackson’s injury and then returning to play in the second half
“Well, he got planted in the turf pretty good, which didn’t make me happy. But, you know, I was told it was a collarbone. So we were planning on moving forward without him.
“I give him a lot of credit. It was an A.C. sprain. Same with Jacurri (Brown). Jacurri got one at the end of the first half. So I honestly left the locker room after halftime thinking Cam (Fancher) was going to come back in. We started with Jacurri, and then Tay said he was ready and came back in.
“You know, those kids are tough.”
On UCF’s rushing defense, and K-State RB Dylan Edwards rushing for 166 yards
“On both sides, I think they’re fast players, Dylan Edwards being one of them. I recruited him. You just can’t give them that many opportunities.
“You know, at times we just squashed them. I mean, when we triggered on things and played our defense the right way, there wasn’t much there. But when you give a kid like him or Avery (Johnson) enough chances, you know, their speed is going to make some plays.
“And we needed those chances to hit some of the runs that popped in the second half. They got more of those chances because they did a better job running first downs early, and the time of possession was in their favor.”
On K-State using its backup QB for some running plays
“Anytime you have a bye week and you can really evaluate yourself, I think you usually come out and make adjustments and do things better. It doesn’t really surprise me. We did the same thing a week ago, you know.
“But again, you know, I played in that Ireland game that K-State played in, and you put a lot of effort and energy into that. When it doesn’t go well, it’s kind of hard to right the ship again. I think the bye week came at the right time for them.
“And like I said, taking nothing away from them, I think we got their best shot. And I’m not sure we quite gave them our best shot, which is a shame, and that’s on me.”
On whether he was surprised Tayven Jackson was able to re-enter the game
“Well, it was either going to be Jacurri or Cam (Fancher) coming out of the locker room. We needed to see Jacurri throw and make sure he could operate. First thing was make sure he could lift his arm to catch the snap.
“And, you know, I got the green light on him, so we started the second half with him. And then the trainer came and told me that Tay wanted to go.
“So, you know, we’ll get them evaluated and see how they are for next week.”
On the difficulty of the week with Coach Shawn Clark’s passing and how it impacted the offensive line
“Yeah, that’s a different conversation because I’ve talked a lot about that, and I don’t want to make that sound like an excuse. You know, we got beat by a good football team that’s lost some close games. I think if things would have started different, the game might have been different, but I got a lot of respect for what they did.
“And, you know, they got better as a football team, and we need to take this one and get better as a football team.”
On the team not giving up
“Yeah, I don’t think this team will ever give up. I think we could lose three or four straight and this team won’t give up.
“You know, we’re starting to develop a bond, and I said this early on, but you got to go through some success and some hard things in order to really come together as a group. There’s no doubt now that this group’s been through some hard things. I think that’s brought us close together.
“I think it drained us of some energy. It drained me of some energy, just the emotions of everything. But I think in the long run it’ll make us better.
“You know, again, credit to Kansas State, and I’m a Chris Klieman of Kansas State fan, but, you know, we got to learn to execute better, and that’s part of being a young team. We can’t get down in the red zone and false start and have delay of games, and we’re starting to make adjustments and call things that weren’t necessarily on the call sheet because of what they were doing. Kids were a little slow to get it.
“You know, the biggest turn of events in that game was we hit the big pass to go down, and we were down three points, and we couldn’t get a stop right there. You know, that would have given us all the momentum in the second half to come out with the ball down three.
“At times the defense smothered them. At times we just weren’t quite where we were supposed to be, and they made us pay for it.
“We got to be able to catch punts. It’s little things that we need to keep improving, and that’s on us as coaches to make sure that, you know, we still have a relatively young and inexperienced team, and we’re doing our best to stay ahead of the curve.
“But every game in the Big 12, in my opinion, is going to be like this. Pretty evenly matched teams, and if you play your best, you’ve got a great chance to win. If you play less than your best, you’re going to get beat, and we got beat by a good team today that played pretty well.”
On what they can learn from this game
“Yeah, I think so. We’ll definitely learn things. I don’t want to speak too much about it until I watch the tape and dissect the tape.
“An example, though, I’m watching our offensive line, and I told them, after one drive I said, it looks like they’re playing harder than you. Come on, boys.
“It wasn’t necessarily that. They were just mixing up their fits, and our guys just haven’t seen it enough to know that they ID somebody and they’re going to that guy, but he disappears and a safety comes down in the box and they need to come off the double team to the safety instead of the guy they originally ID’d.
“It’s little things like that that we’ll get better at as the guys continue to see more.
“The one thing that disappointed me is we practice outside in the heat every day, and defense kind of has an excuse because they played a lot in the first half, but our receivers got too tired too fast, and when they’re fresh they can run and they scare you.
“When they’re not fresh, we didn’t look good enough. So we need to be a little tougher and be able to push through that a little better, and I think that’s more a mindset than anything.”
On the lack of consistency in the run game
“Well, a lot of the stuff I was talking about and then just committing to it a little bit too. You know, preparing for this game was unique because we had the Army game that didn’t really give us anything, and then Iowa State, who’s not really like us, and then North Dakota and Arizona, and they pretty much ran a carbon copy blueprint of each other’s game plan. There was a lot of formations we didn’t even have a look at for how they were going to line up and what they were going to do.
“Again, not an excuse. It was just a challenge. The thing that stood out watching the first four games against Kansas State was they got creased on some runs, and it wasn’t consistent.
“They’d make a play and make a play, and then somebody would misfit something, and they’d crease it. You had to earn first downs in order to put yourself in more of those situations to get those big runs, and that’s what Arizona did better than we did. Especially in the first half, we didn’t earn enough chances to keep committing to the run.”
On the toughness of his quarterbacks
“Yeah, they’re all tough. Cam’s tough after what he went through. Jacurri’s a tough kid, and Tay’s proving he’s a tough kid.
“I can get better, they can get better, and we will get better. I think this team has more room for growth than most teams around the country because of how it was built and put together and the experience that we still need. I love the attitude in the locker room after the game.
“I don’t think they feel like they gave K-State quite their best shot, and we all need to work to make sure that when we get on the field, we play our best, and that’s the only way you can win in this league.”
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